YOUR PERSONAL GOLGOTHA | The Secrets Of Spiritual Growth And Maturity By Dr. D. K Olukoya

YOUR PERSONAL GOLGOTHA

Matthew 27:27-36: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place Called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there;

WHAT IS GOLGOTHA?

It is a place of the skull; it is a place outside the city wall where Jesus was crucified. It was a place where human skull and human eyes were seen at midnight. It is a place of great suffering, a bone yard, a mortuary, a grave yard, a tomb, a sepulcher.

Golgotha is a place where unburied skull of dead criminals were found; a place where there are scattered skulls, where visitors can have a feel of the type of sorrow which people experienced. It is a mountain of doom; a mountain of execution. At Golgotha you will find bodies of victims who were abandoned and turned to preys for birds.

The hill of Golgotha was constructed in the shape of a skull. The hill was in a conspicuous and elevated position. If you are summoned to Golgotha, your family members will know you are going to die. This was the most dreaded in those days. Nobody goes to Golgotha and comes back. At Golgotha you will see dried bones, ugly skulls and parts of the body without the flesh. The symbol of the skull is associated with danger. The skull is an emblem of poison. Where there is hazard on chemicals like acids the sign of a skull is placed to warn people.

Golgotha represents the sting of death. It is a place where the world will converge with your accusers and you will be executed. Golgotha is an altar of sacrifice. This is the place where Jesus Christ our Passover lamb was slaughtered. At Golgotha, the intelligent human being or brain no longer has power. At Golgotha, there is no make up, no merriment. It is all gloom and darkness.

For you to be effective in spiritual warfare, for you to be a light where there is darkness, you must experience your own personal Golgotha, the place of the skull. Your personal Golgotha is the battle ground of the mind, the arena of your uncrucified thought life and your uncrucified body, head, leg and life. Your Golgotha occurs when satanic attacks are magnetized.

To defeat the devil you need the renewal of your mind. When God judges sin, He judges your action, motive, the thoughts of your heart, intention, the meditations of your heart and the words of your mouth. All these will be judged by God.

Beloved, if you must conquer your enemies you have to take your uncrucified thoughts to Golgotha. If you allow lust and other types of uncrucified thoughts to becloud your mind you will find it difficult to succeed in spiritual warfare.

Where is the location of the Devil?

The address or location of the devil is the realm of darkness. Where there is spiritual darkness, the devil is there. If the darkness is in your heart, no matter how many hours you speak in tongues per day, the devil is in your heart. If there is darkness in any home the devil will be there.

Let me share a couple’s sad story with you. For six months they did not talk to each other. They lived in the same house and slept on the same bed. The wife would cook food for herself and the children. Later the husband would enter the kitchen and cook his own food. Even on Sunday they would enter the same car and go to Sunday services without talking to each other. This lasted for six months. One out of their four children had very terrible malaria and the wife didn’t tell the husband. Unfortunately, the husband never checked the children. By 6:00 am the next morning the boy was found dead. By 12 noon another child was dead. The darkness in the home Brought in the enemy. The situation was tragic.

DARK PRACTICES

If there is darkness in a business, the devil will be present in that business. If you introduce lies into your business and you think you are smart, it is the devil you are introducing into your business. If there is darkness in your body, of course, the enemy will stay with you. If a dead man worshipped a golden idol and was buried with his golden idol and another man exhumed the my of the idol worshipper and found a golden idol and decided to break it into smaller parts which he turned to ear-rings, necklace and all sorts of jewelry, if by chance you bought the jewelry, there is no amount of sanctifying prayer you can do to the jewelry; all idols are under a curse. You have invited the devil into your life.

In Taiwan and Bangkok, most of their products are placed before their idols before shipping or exporting it to another country. If you buy the product, it will magnetize satanic attacks into your life.

Then there must be some darkness you are harbouring in your life. Some ministers of God have become clever thieves in the house of God, unknown to them they are inviting the devil into their lives.

No matter how devoted you are, if there is darkness in your heart, the devil will be there. If there is darkness in your marriage, the devil will be there. If you have built your house with stolen money the devil would be there. The enemy will demolish the house no matter how you try to sanctify the house night and day.

Brethren, whether we fight or not, the devil is an incurable fighter. You must a analyse areas of your life which are open to satanic attacks. The day you are able to analyse your life, then victory has come your way. Analyse the hidden area of your life. Ask yourself and give answer to questions like; do I get angry easily? Do I have lust in my heart? Am I a thief? Do I steal my tithe? Do I react aggressively when people talk to me anyhow? Am I proud? You must give honest answers to these questions.

THE POWER OF BROKENESS

There was a woman who came from London to one of our ministerial schools in Nigeria. She gave a testimony that of all the text books given to her for her studies the only book that gave her sleepless nights was the book on brokenness which she read five times. When she was going back to London, she sat at the window side in the aircraft. Somebody sat beside her. She was praying and the woman who sat beside her said ‘Is this the first time you are entering a plane? Look at where you put your foolish bag. The woman shouted; “Take your bag away from her here and behave yourself” she said immediately something steered up inside her and ordinarily she would have exploded in that place. All of a sudden she remembered the book, Brokenness and she became gentle and started crying. She decided to put into practice what she read from the book and she embraced the woman saying “I am sorry madam I will put my bag somewhere else”.

It dawned on the other woman and she was embarrassed and asked to know the Church she normally attends? She replied “I attend Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries”. The woman told her that when they got to London she must take her there.

When you are able to discern the areas of your life that are in darkness and you are able to open them up to the Holy Spirit, a great victory will come to

your life. Life is not an experiment. The devil and his host have been sentenced to darkness. Darkness is not just the absence of light but it is any area of moral darkness or any area of ungodly character.

Many years ago I addressed a women’s meeting. I asked the women; Why is it that when you put seven men in a room for three years they will never fight? But if seven sisters are placed in a room for two weeks there would be pandemonium. They all kept quiet. One old woman raised her hand and said “Pastor the reason is that men have Adam’s apple and women do not have”. I told her that there is no basis for her answer in the scriptures. The problem is that there are areas of darkness that must be dealt with by women.

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL DARKNESS?

Spiritual darkness is the absence of God who is light. If you tolerate darkness through secret tolerance of sin in your life, you have opened yourself to satanic attacks, you have surrendered yourself to be preyed on by your enemies. Whenever there is disobedience to the word of God, there will be spiritual darkness. Consequently, there will be demonic activities. Wherever there is willful disobedience to the word of God, there will be spiritual darkness and a potential ground for high demonic activities. The Bible says;

Luke 11:35: Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

Many of us have been suffering and many of us have been punished because we refused to take darkness away from our lives. In the Bible passage above, the Bible tells us that it is possible for the light in our life to become darkness. Because there is light in every child of God, the Bible says the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.

Immediately, you begin to habour sin, malice, gossip, unforgiveness, lust, bitterness, that light in you can become darkness. Bad luck and failure will be rampant in your life because the sins you habour have made the light in you to become darkness.

AREAS OF DARKNESS

The devil has legal access to any area of darkness. Satan had access to an area of Peter’s life. Immediately, he drafted an agenda for Peter because he wanted to sift him. Peter, a pillar in the early Church was satanically induced. It was not human fear that made Peter to deny Jesus. Peter was not a fearful person by nature, he feared nobody. It was the same Peter who drew a sword and cut off a soldier’s ear. Fear was not Peter’s problem. But the devil knew the dark areas of his life.

Beloved, all those pampered areas of darkness in your life are the very areas of future defeat and people will not understand what is going on. They will not know that you have harboured dark areas in your life.

One day, a man called me on phone and stated that he is not a full member of MFM but he often attended our special programmes. I prayed with the man and before the man dropped the line, he said he gave a cheque to the pastor who prayed with him when he came for the last programmes and he also gave the pastor a cheque for MFM, that, was the cheque received? I told the man that no cheque got to us”. The pastor who was given the cheque did not inform me that he was given a cheque and I refused to ask. There was an area of darkness in the pastor’s life.

One day the pastor called me and said God told him to go and establish his own church and I told him he was free to go. But nothing was established. The pastor was busy roaming around the streets. There was darkness in his life which he did not address before the devil entered. When there is darkness in your spirit you will see visions, you may think that it is from God, whereas it is from the devil.

THE ARMOUR OF DARKNESS

You may never win life’s battles until you discover and repent from the darkness within you. The reasons why many people are not ready to depart from the world of darkness and face God is because of pride. Pride is the armour of darkness. The greatest I defense you can have against the devil is to have a clean heart and hand before God.

I guess you have a little lawyer in your heart that will defend you when you are doing the wrong thing. This internal lawyer in the laboratory of your heart

will be telling you that what you did is not too bad.

Recently, I met a sister whom I saw last in 1990. At that time she came to see me and said she wanted to marry a pastor, I prayed with her and I told her that she was pregnant and she never denied it. I told her to tell her pastor fianc6 to see me. The pastor came in a well dressed suit and sat before me I asked him “Why are you sleeping with a woman outside marriage”. The pastor simply made a funny statement saying that the devil has power but lacks salvation. I told him that was not the answer to my question. This incident was 1990-1991. Recently, when I saw the sister, she said the pastor had died.

There is an internal lawyer inside your heart who will be keep defending you when you are wrong. You must sack the evil internal lawyer. Satan will keep arresting areas of weakness in your life until you become Christ-like. The enemy will keep coming. But when you are humble, the devil will avoid you. Satan detests humility. Satan is a proud person; Satan feeds on the carnal human nature. The foods of the devil are those things which make you carnal and ungodly.

The real bondage you have is not demonic but fleshly in nature. It is dangerous to rationalize your sins. It is dangerous to rationalize your carnality. You must separate what is of Christ from what is of the devil for effective warfare.

THE DEVIL’S FOOD

Ask yourself, the problems and oppressors that you are facing today, are they as a result of yesterday’s events?. You must remove that darkness that attracts the enemy. Rebellion or disobedience can invite a demon into your life. The devil feeds on sin. Whenever there is sin in your life there will be demonic activities. The best way to achieve deliverance is to have your life swept clean without any trace of sin.

The construction materials of the enemy in your life must be roasted today. Remember, until you arrive at your personal Golgotha, the place of the skull, the enemy will continue to harass you.

What is your personal Golgotha?

Your personal Golgotha is a place where all your bad habits die. It is a place where pride evaporates. Your place of personal Golgotha is a place where flesh no longer has control over you. It is a place where money loses its hold upon you. Your personal Golgotha is a place where your mouth is disciplined and you can not misuse your tongue again. Your personal Golgotha is a place where sin emits a bad odour. Your personal Golgotha is a place where Satan no longer has a place in your life. Your personal Golgotha is a place where you do not entertain any form of disobedience.

Your personal Golgotha is a place where repentance becomes your way of life. A place where you learn how to capture evil so that it does not overshadow you and you learn how to arrest your evil thoughts. Your personal Golgotha is a place where you must hand over your life to Jesus Christ. A popular hymn writer declared: “Take my will and make it thine and it shall be no longer mine”.

Your personal Golgotha is a place where you no longer blow your trumpet. A lot of people boast of their worth. They go about saying I know my worth, even when my colleagues see me they all know my worth. Never blow your own trumpet.

Your personal Golgotha is a place where you don’t live above your experience.

There was a man who had all the degrees obtainable in law. With all the professional certificates, he decided to establish a law firm. One day, somebody was about entering his office. Immediately he noticed that somebody was about entering his office, he quickly grabbed the telephone and was making a false statement saying “Is that America, I will join you soon, I will get a first class ticket and join you so that I can help you handle the case. I learnt it is me you are waiting for. Don’t worry; I will join the next available plane”. His intention was to impress the person who came into his office. But to his surprise the man was not impressed. He quickly introduced himself, and declared “Sir, I am from the telecommunication company, I have come to connect your phone because it is not yet connected. I wonder why you must make a fake phone call. When you blow your trumpet above where you are that is what happens.

A young man asked an old saint who has been in the Christian faith for years, “Sir, what will you recommend as the first Christian virtue that I should pursue? The old saint looked at the young man and answered “Humility”. The young man asked the old saint. What is the second virtue that I should pursue? The old saint said “Humility”. He asked the old saint again; what is the third virtue I should pursue? The old man said “Humility”.

When you shun carnality, and when you have no room for self the enemy will lose interest in you.

Some people who receive a little gift and people gather around them and start praising them saying, “You are highly anointed, don’t stay here, we will follow you to where you are going”. The baby pastor will listen to them and move out of his place of destiny. Later, he will come back and repent. When such men are pushed out of their place of destiny it is because there was an area of darkness in their lives.

A TRANSFORMED LIFE

You need to go through your personal Golgotha. But immediately you are out of the place of Golgotha you become a changed person. When you see a Christian brother or sister who commits sin at will, it is because he or she has not gone to Golgotha; he has not been crucified. If you have been crucified, the old man will be dead and you will become a new man.

The last time I got angry was 1974, it was the old Daniel. Now the old Daniel is dead. When the old Daniel wanted to die some worldly friends felt sorry for me because they felt I was too intelligent, and smart. They wondered why I wanted to became a devoted Christian. They lamented because they knew they had lost me.

Brethren, have your friends lost you? Have your family and colleagues lost you? Have you reached your personal Golgotha? Surrender your all today before the enemy finds a place in your life. Get to your Golgotha before satanic attacks dominate your life.

You must get to your place of Golgotha so that God can expose the dark areas of your life. Let God fight for you. Getting to your personal Golgotha. When

you get to your place of Golgotha, there will be reconstruction in your life. There will be great changes, God will expose and torment the demons hiding in the dark areas of your life. The strangers will be frightened out of their hidden corners.